Columns > Dean Budnick - From the Editor

A True Diaper Dandy

Diaper Dandy- the phrase belongs to college basketball analyst Dick Vitale, referring to a freshman hoops sensation (btw, I once met Vitale backstage at the Mullins center at UMass before a Phish show in 1995- I was there interviewing Phish lighting director Chris Kuroda and Vitale was there because Marcus Camby and the 3rd ranked UMass would spank Tim Duncan and 10th ranked Wake Forest the next night).

Anyhow, in this case, the Diaper Dandy in question is Mr. Jesse Jarnow, who on December 31, 1996 joined moe. on stage dressed as baby New Year (as moe. reminded him with their moe.llennium postcard above, which they sent out a few years later).

Jarnow was Jambands.com’s diaper dandy, as I nabbed him to join us as a columnist from the get go, approaching the then-Oberlin student before we launched in the summer of 1998. He’s been with us ever since, as columnist, features writer and as of late Senior Editor.

While I hope we won’t have seen the last of him around these parts, it does appear that he will be taking some time off as he works on the official Yo La Tengo biography.

As Jesse occasionally reminds me, I never even met him until my official Jambands book release party at Wetlands on 10/23/98 (The Disco Biscuits upstairs, The Slip down in the lounge). But I’ve always been psyched to cross paths over the intevening years, if only to check out the state of his facial hair.

The dude’s a writer’s writer and I’m looking forward to the Yo La Tengo Tome. Still I do hold out hope he’ll swing around this way again as the mood suits. We shall see…